Real estate advice you can trust.
From the Trenches
My book, How to Buy a Home and Keep Your Sanity: 12 Simple Rules in Any Market, draws on my own real estate experiences, and those of my colleagues and clients. Unlike most home-buying books, my view is from the trenches.
After losing both parents at an early age, I rolled up my sleeves and clawed my way to the American Dream. I earned an M.B.A. and J.D., practiced real estate law in two states, and am now a partner in own my own title insurance agency. I’ve helped dozens of clients buy homes for less than they ever thought possible, and sell homes for far more than they ever dreamed. I don’t just talk the talk. I have personally bought and sold over a dozen houses to build a significant net real estate worth.
The advice in my book does not come sanitized. I speak from the heart. I say what a father with 25 years of real estate experience would say to his children when they seek his help buying a home. I give my readers the inside information they need to make home-buying decisions in their own best interest. I may not win the hearts of real estate agents, mortgage lenders, and closing agents. The advice I give, they may not want you to hear. But the strategies I show my readers – sprung from hard-won victories and painful losses – will help them buy the right home, at the lowest price, and with less stress.
If you have ever bought a home or sold a home, or tried to buy a home or sell a home, you’ve had your own successes and failures. Those victories and defeats taught you valuable lessons. I’ve shared mine. Now you share yours. If you could offer one bit of advice, one word of caution, one helpful hint to someone you care about who is buying or selling a home, what would that be? This is the forum for you to speak your mind. Tell HomeDingo about your own experiences buying a home or selling a home, and what those experiences taught you.
To share your own real estate experiences, contact HomeDingo
FROM THE TRENCHES
Dear HomeDingo, * * *
My husband and I have tried to sell our home in Memphis for over a year now. We tried selling on our own. No bites. We tried selling through a real estate agent. No bites. I followed the advice of so many articles on how to put your home’s best foot forward when trying to sell, and how to price your home realistically. Nothing seems to work. Two possible buyers gave our home a second look, but neither gave an offer … any offer. We are lucky in that we are not yet underwater with our mortgage yet even though the value of our house keeps going down, but if prices keep dropping much longer, we will get underwater like so many other people. Is the housing market EVER going to get better?
Denise,
Memphis, TN
Dear Denise,
Since I started this website, Denise, I can’t count how many times I’ve heard the same story from so many homeowners from all over the country. In fact, I’ve heard this sad story so often that it’s starting to get me down.
Unfortunately, I see little relief in sight.
I did some research on the Memphis real estate market to get a better handle on what’s happening in your neck of the woods. Figures compiled by the Memphis Area Association of Realtors shows a 21% increase in homes sold from July 2010 (816) to July 2011 (987), as well as an increase in the average selling price (from $144,000 to $152,000) and median price (from $113,000 to $120,000) over the same period.
However, year-to-date (January through July), the number homes sold in 2011 (6,417) is 8% behind the number of homes sold in 2010 (6,974). Furthermore, year-to-date, the average home price is down 2.1% from 2010, and the median home price is down 6.7% from 2010.
But you don’t need me to tell you this.
About the only hope I found in these stats is the increase in sales from July 2010 to July 2011. Perhaps this is an early indicator that the Memphis market may have hit or is near its bottom.
The unemployment rate in Memphis, about 10.1%, is high compared to other major U.S. cities—though not by much. Like nearly everywhere else in our great country, until unemployment abates and consumer confidence rises, the vicious cycle that has crippled the real estate market will go on and on. Eventually, and slowly, real estate values will return, but until the foreclosure pipeline starts to slow, allowing inventories to shrink, don’t expect much relief.
Hang in there, and don’t give up hope. This, too, will end.
Sal at HomeDingo
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